Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1887-07-29
THE PHYSICIANS DUTIES.
Address to the Graduating Glass of the
Medical College by Hon.J
W. Patterson.

The following is a report in full of the
admirable address delivered before the
graduating class of the Medical depart
ment of the University at the Howard
Opera House Monday evening
Mr.. President, Ladies and gentlemen
On receiving an invitation from dis
tinguished member of your faculty, whom
once had the honor of teaching, to address
You on this OCCASION | felt an instructive
impulse to decline service to which it
seemed to me that nothing but kind of
filial Partially could have called me, i'm
agine | felt very much as Noltaire did on
receiving letter from Il stranger requesting
him to let him know by return mail if there
was God
am not doctor and shall not presume
TO impose upon you any labored platitudcs
upon the specipltes and tcchnicalitics of
your profession.
Medicine as branch of study is no longer
an occult science. 1t no longer withdraws
into dark and sacred secusion with the
"Procul, procul este proiant' of elias
sic excusiveness. 1t has sloughed the re-
serve and mystery of its early history and
fcated out into the widening drift of knowl-
edge characteristic of our age. 1t is not a
systematized collection of theories deduCed
from the ingenious guesses of distinguish
ed devotees, but an induCtive science
drawn from verified facts. 1t ranges
through the whole kingdom of nature and
gamers its principles from the widest exper-
fences of humanity in peace and war
This tendency to dfluse knowledge will
doubtless result for time, i'll general shall
lowness and pedantry, and make pretence
and quackery paying vocation for adroit
knaves. Providentially have had but lit
tie personal use for doctors, but on general
principles, protest against quacks. When
any man claims divine gift of healing, by
any process, he should be required to present
an authenticated diploma from the source of
his power be it celestial or Internal. Life
is a thing too precious. death thing too
awful and human affections too deep and
tender to be put at hazard by an ignorant
and unprincipled pretender for profit.
But with all else the soul must draw its
supreme inspiration from the ultimate source
of all power. We sustain mysterious de
pendence upon the unseen divinity that
speaks to our inner senses and grow stLong
as we come into communion with it. "Who-
soever feels not the warm breath and gentle
ventilation of this spirit, though | feel his
pulses ] cannot say he lives; for truly with
out this, to me there is no heat under the
tropic and no light though | dwelt i'll the
very body of the sun
But fortunately we have an antidote for
the incidental evils that spring from the
popularizng of knowledge a spirit of in
vestigation is the prevalent passion of the
age. Nothing is accepted as settled. Crucial
tests are applied to all things. Theories.
professions, institutions and systems of
foit q intn nn
analysed by modern thought This reent-
less inquisiton of progressive science quick
ly unspheres the charlatan and drives him
into merited obscuIity
There can be no pei manent success in any
profession, that does not spring from pro
found and accurate knowledge, and this is
the price of continuous study and close oh
servation As Webster once said to an in
quiSitiye student there are no extompore
acquisitions" Genius has an intuitye
sense and, in many things, may vault
the slow processes of the schools, but it
Is a dangerous gift, and never made II
great doctor. The physician who has a
genius for hard work, will acquirdthe lean
ing of his profession and command success
in its practice, while your unstudied genius
will scntllate for n brief hour and then 90
ont i'll perpetual darkness.
The relations of the physician to the fam
lily and the community are the most init
mate and confidential, and he must be re
ligousy true to his trusts, if he would re
tain his power. "Confidence,n says Chat
ham, sis a plant of slow growth" and
when once it is blasted, it rarely revives.
b The doctor is the repository of weaknesses,
follies and misfortunes which society has no
right to know, and which should be buried
below the reach of curiosity. Such things
are only to be unbosomed for the public good
and by processes of law. Professional Sc
crets are too sacred to be themes for social
amusements. and there should be no distinc
ton between the rich and the poor in re-
spect to the rights of patients. The in1is-
Greet physician should be driven from prac-
tice and generally will be. The doctor of to-
day should be many sided. He must be a
doctor and something more. He is citizen
holding important relations to the public by
virtue Of his profession,
Luke was the beloved physician, and be
loved because he was physician 1t was
this affectionate relation that enlarged his
influence. The apostle was representative
of his class, and it is this which | would en-
phasize to-day.
Professional men who have been disciplin-
men and books, whose minds have been
purged of narrowness and prejudice by
bordering the failures and successes of ages
in which their judgments could be warped
by no personal interests are the natural
leaders of society. But there are others
than professional qualifications essential to
this right of leadership The untaught in
stinct of the people will discover the doctor S
ruling motives before he has diagnosed their
diseases. He must therefore have, not only
intellectual superiority, but must be CONTROL
ed by a purpose to advance the general wei
fare rather than to aggrandize himself. His
influence must be promotive of intelligence,
purity and morality, and he must have IA
sincere and cordial sympathy and fellowship
with the community, No man can be a
leader who affects social superiority to
those whom he should help.
So equipped, the men who pass out from
our professional schools into all parts of the
republic, have a right to an indepen lent
Judgment in all matters affecting the social
interests of the communities in which their